Technically and financially supported by ILO IPEC, CAMFEBA has implemented a child labour project aiming at mobilizing employers to eliminate child labour in Cambodia, focusing on the worst forms of child labour. A dedicated group of private sector representatives and Child Labour Focal Persons were created and trained and have been an active and effective mechanism in disseminating information and knowledge on the worst forms of child labour. A Code of Conduct for employers was developed and adopted by employers in target sectors under the project. The project works extensively in a variety of sectors including brick, rubber plantations, fishery, salt production, domestic child labour, and child porters.

The project has created a platform for employers to address and immediately eliminate the worst forms of child labour. As employers globally have played an important role in mobilizing public opinion against child labour, CAMFEBA continues to build on her experiences and work in this area.

Even though the main objective of CAMFEBA is to promote good industrial relation in Cambodia, we has also extended our focus on social issue such as youth employment, child labor, HIV/AIDS. CAMFEBA started implementing the Child Labor Project in 2006 under the financial and technical collaboration with the ILO’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC). The first phase of this project finished in 2008 and the second phrase started in March 2011 and will finish in August 2012.

The project was titled as “Mobilizing Employers and Their Organizations for the Elimination of Child Labour in Cambodia, Focusing on the Immediate Elimination of Its Worst Forms”,. It focused on mobilizing, strengthening, and capacitating employers and employers’ organization to immediate elimination of the worst forms of child labour which is based on 07 target provinces/municipalities. The key achievements in the first phase include:

Established the Code of Conduct for Employers on Child Labor and circulate it widely with the other employers.

Built systems and coordination mechanism within CAMFEBA to respond to child labour effectively by setting up a Dedicated Group of 6 members, they are:

President of Women's Association of Small & Medium Businesses (WASMB)

Production Manager of P.P.S. Ltd

Delegation of Cambodian-French Chamber of Commerce (CCFC)

Executive Secretary of Cambodian Federation of Employers and Business Associations

c. being in close collaboration with WASMB, we developed an article seeking an end to Child Domestic Labour

5. Implemented the National emplyers’ awareness raising and advocacy campaigns against child labour:

a. Developed 3 short stories of the Radio Spots - Rubber Plantation, Fishery, and Salt Production - broadcasted with radio channel 104 FM

b. Developed two 2mx3m Billboards and placed it at Choam Chao and Kien Khlaing

c. Produced 4000 Stickers

d. Produced 3000 A2 sized Posters

e. Designed new CAFMEBA’s Letterhead by putting a message of Together “Let Us End Child Labour”

6. Established collaborative contacts with Government, Trade Unions, and national and internal agencies to enhance the outcomes of actions of employers against child labour by identifying relevant bodies): Government, Trade Unions, US Embassy, World Bank, ADB, World Vision Cam, Unicef, Unesco… and keeping them informed, by developing materials on child labour, about the progress of the action programme

7. Promotede and disseminatede to employers in the country and region Corporate Social Responsibility in the area of child lavbour by collecting information on CSR impacting chid labour across the country and in the Asia Pacific and South Asian regions

8. Identified, documented, and sharede good practice and lessons learnt and Printing out 2000 copies of the document and circulated them with the employer communities.

The name of the project was changed to “Capacitating Employer’s Organizations to Contribute to Achieving the Cambodia’s Twin Goals on Child Labour”. With the expansion of the target area to 09 provinces/municipalities, the project is aimed to sensitize employers and employers’ organization on child labour and build their capacity as well as to encourage more commitment from them to contribute to the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC)’s Twin Goals on the elimination of child labour in Cambodia by 2015 and 2016. The project also demonstrates the good collaboration between employers and workers organizations to disseminate the core message of the child labour elimination at the grass root level.

Being the employers’ representative, CAMFEBA would like to encourage and disseminate this information to all the employers to actively involve with all child labour elimination activities to prove the world that Cambodia is the country which is free of child labour.

This publication was made possible with fnancial support from the International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour of the International Labor Organization (ILO IPEC) through the project no. CMB/08/50P/USA, P.270.16.316.052

This publication was made possible with fnancial support from the International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour of the International Labor Organization (ILO IPEC) through the project no. CMB/08/50P/USA, P.270.16.316.052